ParaNorman

I absolutely love horror movies.  I also love animated movies.  So when a production company combines the two, it's going to be epic.  But what can be better than an animated horror movie?  That can only be stop-motion animated horror fun!  And that's exactly what you get with ParaNorman.  It's an awesome movie!

We all go to the movies to be entertained, but what we are entertained by varies from person to person.  For me, it wasn't necessarily the story that lured me to the theater, but rather the look and feel of what was shown in the trailer.  The small town that Norman lives in looked like Haddonfield.  Little did I know it would be based so closely on Salem, MA, which is another love of mine.  That only added to the ghoulish, witchy, mood the movie ignites.  That, along with the green swirls of paranormal activity, zombies, and spooky music guaranteed me a good time and complete entertainment.

Okay, so those are the things that lured me in.  But what made me love ParaNorman so much that I'm writing about it here?  The little things.  Norman's love for zombies reminds me of my love for Halloween.  He has zombie slippers, a zombie alarm clock, a zombie night light, and zombie posters all over his walls.  Just look at the picture above.  Norman wants to be a zombie.  There's no doubt he's a big fan of Halloween and I'd bet he frequents The Holidaze this time of year.

The little things are what makes this movie an instant Halloween classic for me.  Hey, they even incorporated the classic Halloween theme song and Jason's hockey mask into one of the scenes!  You couldn't give a bigger tip of the cap to your roots than that.  Those are the things that stick out for me.  Of course, the zombies are awesome.  The scene with Aggie, the Witch, is visually unbelievable.  And the music is absolutely perfect for each mood throughout each scene of the movie.  Personally, my favorite tune hits during the 80s throwback scene in the beginning and the modern version played during the zombie apocalypse.  It just works so well.

On top of stellar animation and a wonderfully told story, the humor is much more adult that I would have expected.  But that's not a bad thing, that's great.  There's nothing over the top or anything that kids haven't heard a thousand times before, but certainly more than I expected from an animated film.  Think along the lines of a PG-13 Adam Sandler movie.  This movie will definitely make you laugh.

So, if you haven't seen ParaNorman already, then do yourself a favor and go catch this bad boy in 3-D!  If you're looking for a good Halloween fix, this is a great way to get it.  This movie will become a tradition for me and will definitely be a DVD I pop into the player every Halloween from here on out.  It's an immersion into the spirit of Halloween and, at this point, that's exactly what I am looking for.

The only downside?  No video game!! This would have been an gold mine for consoles like the Wii and Xbox 360.  I would have liked to see more merchandise but, so far, you either have to win contests or get lucky on Ebay.  Regardless, go see ParaNorman!!